Water for Life Charity

This is our emergency fundraiser for Ukraine. 
Our goal is to raise $10,000 for 300 water filtration systems, providing 20,000 gallons of clean water a day for 3,000 Ukrainians immediately. 
I'm Lindsey Leavitt  kidlit author and Director of Donor Outreach at Water for Life Charity. My husband, James Brown, began working on humanitarian water projects in 2010 and became President of Water for Life Charity in 2017. Our trusted, registered 501(c)(3) charity specializes in distributing water filtration solutions in developing countries. We are also on the ground as soon as possible for disaster relief.

 

 

(Tanzania Project with Roam Humanitarian)

 

THE PROBLEM:

After placing 30,000 water filters in over twenty-three countries, few conditions shock us. We’ve brought filters to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, livestock-contaminated African watering holes, and cholera-riddled Yemen. But the destructive war-time atrocities found in modernized Ukraine presents devastation incomprehensible in scope.

 

In a country of forty-four million people, it is presently estimated over twelve million Ukrainian refugees have fled to neighboring countries or are refugees within their own borders. Of those twelve million, UNICEF estimates that “over six million people in Ukraine are struggling every day to have drinking water, one of the most essential human needs.” Six million.

 

Water supplies are cut off and acts of war have caused sewage and drinking water to mix, dramatically increasing the risk of waterborne illnesses, such as cholera. As this enormous crisis continues, we find the most vulnerable to be at greatest risk of death. “Young children who live in conflict zones are 20 times more likely to die from diarrheal diseases linked to unsafe water than from direct violence, as a result of war,” said UNICEF Ukraine Representative, Murat Sahin. “Their access to water, wherever they are, must not be jeopardized as a result of war – for children, it is a matter of life and death.”

 

(Water for Life's Rudy Schaffer sampling water in Cambodian Floating Village)

 

THE SOLUTION:

Our organization is 100% volunteer-based and unhampered by supply or bureaucratic issues. We have multiple carrier teams flying water filtration supplies to struggling Ukrainians. We work to personally deliver our filters through trusted volunteers, who also provide education for proper use. Our efforts today will make a direct and pivotal impact for generations.

 

 

(Lindsey Leavitt and volunteer transporting supplies into Ukraine)

 

YOUR DONATION'S IMPACT:

 

For only $50, Water for Life Charity can provide clean drinking water for ten people for three to five years. Donations are tax-deductible.

 

$50 – 1 Filter + 2 Buckets = 100 Gallons of Clean Water a Day 

$250 – 5 Filters + 10 Buckets = 500 Gallons of Clean Water a Day 

$1,000 – 20 Filters + 40 Buckets = 1,000 Gallons of Clean Water a Day

$5,000 – 100 Filters + 200 Buckets = 10,000 Gallons of Clean Water a Day

$25,000 – 500 Filters + 1,000 Buckets = 50,000 Gallons of Clean Water a Day

$75,000 –1,500 Filters + 3,000 Buckets = 150,000 Gallons of Clean Water a Day

 

We are seeking additional funds to purchase filters for distribution in southern civilian areas without clean water, including Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia. Our supplier has over 10,000 filters ready to ship once the funds become available. We are working to send bi-monthly shipments. We recently sent a carrier with two hundred water filters, along with other much needed medical supplies donated by other organizations. We will continue to expand this model.

 

Please consider joining our efforts to relieve the suffering of Ukrainian people. Thank you for coming together as a world community to help save lives!

We are raising funds to drill a solar-powered well in Tinga, Kenya for the Maasai people.

We need $20,000 to drill a well deep enough to access reliable water (600ft) and to install a solar pump so that it can function in the remote desert area. The well drilling costs $12,000 and the solar pump costs $8,000. The well’s hydrogeologic report estimates that the well will produce approximately 20 gallons of water per minute, providing water for up to 4,000 people!

Water is extremely scarce in Tinga (sometimes referred to as Oltinga) Kenya. The only time that rivers and streams are present and available for individuals to collect water is for a few weeks in the rainy season between March and May. The nearest lake, Lake Magadi, is a salt water lake. Even once individuals access this water, is contains waterborne illnesses that can cause sickness and death. Instead of attending school, children will often have to collect this water for their families, this water that can make them sick that same day.

Currently in order to access water, individuals are trucked up to 30 miles away to get water once or twice a week in exchange for several dollars. The alternative is to pay $700 for a family to have water for three months. But this cost is the equivalent of one individual’s annual income, a situation out of the question for most families.

As a result of the current water situation, the Maasai people have learned to live on half a gallon of water per day to extend their three month supply to last a year.

To put that into perspective, the average American uses 80-100 gallons of water per day.

Together let’s share clean water with thousands of people in the Maasai community!

The Maasai People

The Maasai practice seasonal migration but have a home base where they return to cultivate crops. They also make a living by herding goats and cattle. Because of their semi-nomadic and pastoral lifestyle, the Maasai people need a lot of land. They have lived in the northern, central, and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania area for thousands of years. However, the Maasai have been forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands in Serengeti in Tanzania and Maasai Mara in Kenya by tourism and safaris. Because of the high cost of land in Kenya, individuals would either have to save their entire salary for 10 years to purchase one acre of land, or they would need to illegally displace another tribe from their ancestral property. This situation has forced the people to live on this arid, less desirable ancestral land.

In addition to the local government’s push for tourism, climate change has also drastically challenged the Maasai people’s access to resources and water. In the past there were several permanent rivers in the area, including 18 rivers in the Namuncha and Ewuaso Kedong areas. Now there is only one permanent river that ends in the Namuncha area.

Help us bring clean, safe drinking water to the Maasai community but donating today. You donation changes and saves thousands of lives.

Photo courtesy of Michael Starkie.

Help provide 500 VF100 water filters to families in Chimaltenango, Guatemala.

Guatemala is the number one country in Latin America for child malnutrition, its levels of stunting in children under the age of five is close to 50%, and only half the population has access to uncontaminated drinking water that is readily available.

Currently there is no clean water infrastructure in the community we are working in. If a family isn’t able to purchase bottled water from a market, they have no option but to drink water that can make them sick.

One VF100 water filter allows a whole household and a few neighbors to have clean water every day and the opportunities it provides for years to come.

Together let’s change and save lives, one water filter at a time.

About our organization:

Water For Life Charity is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization that supplies water filters and drills wells in developing countries lacking clean, safe drinking water. Our goal is to save lives, increase economic and educational opportunities, and improve health one water filter and well at a time. With the support of generous donors, we give the hope of life through clean water.